Facing the Opposition’s heightened attacks for the absence of industries in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday accused the Centre of preventing investments worth over `1 lakh crores lined up for the state from taking shape on the ground.
Mr Kumar’s latest outburst of allegations against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, although not new in the past two years, are being seen as part of his defensive stance following scathing criticism of his NDA government by the Opposition RJD legislators during the ongoing Assembly session. These criticisms had forced Mr Kumar to declare in the Assembly that development did not mean setting up factories only.
Bihar has received investment proposals of `90,000 crores for setting up ethanol manufacturing units and of `20,000 for setting up thermal power plants, said Mr Kumar in his address at a function in Patna organised by a newspaper. “But the Centre has for long remained silent on our request for removing restrictions in the manufacturing of ethanol from sugarcane juice. The Centre has also paid no attention to Bihar’s requests for adequate coal linkage for using the investment to generate 2,000 MW power,” he said.
The JD(U) stalwart also harped on the old dispute between his government and the Centre over the repair of national highways in the state, saying the Centre disagreed to reimburse the `1,000 crores spent by the Bihar government for repairing the NHs after duly informing the Centre. He also asserted that Bihar remained neglected yet again in the Union Budget.
By renewing his attacks on the Centre for continually neglecting Bihar, Mr Kumar is likely to score some timely political points over the newly aggressive RJD, whose leader Lalu Prasad Yadav has lately shown signs of closeness with the Congress, say analysts. In the past, Mr Kumar has often highlighted how the RJD has been betraying Bihar by criticising the Congress in Bihar and secretly maintaining relations with the national party at the Centre.